Sports columnist Tommy Hicks: Big Dance lacked local flavor this year

A No. 1 seed made its way into the Final Four in the last possible opportunity, and it wasn’t easy.

Duke, the top seed in the South Region, had to push its way past a pesky and talented Baylor team to claim a spot in Indianapolis this weekend.

The rest of the lineup features No. 2 seed West Virginia, which faces Duke in the national semifinals on Saturday, and a pair of No. 5 seeds. They are Butler, which will be playing seven minutes from its campus, and Michigan State, which reached the Final Four a year ago.

There can’t be many office pool brackets that include all four of those teams reaching Indianapolis. Consider the teams that aren’t here: overall No. 1 seed Kansas, which was knocked out early and followed later by another No. 1 seed, Syracuse. Top seed Kentucky was knocked out by West Virginia on Saturday.

The SEC, which had a chance to fill half the Final Four slots heading into the weekend, will not be represented. The ACC, Big East and Big Ten each have a team still chasing the crown, as does the Horizon League.

The list of teams from the original 65 not making it to the Final Four is an impressive one and includes Villanova, Purdue, Louisville, Ohio State, Maryland, Pitt, Kansas State, Vanderbilt and Florida.

There is another obvious omission: no teams from the state of Alabama.

Of course, making it to the Final Four is impossible when one doesn’t earn a spot in the tournament to begin with. That was the case this season. Not a single team from the state earned a place among the 65 teams chasing the NCAA title.

A couple were invited to play for the other championship, the NIT, but they have fallen by the wayside, too. UAB, which hadn’t lost a home game to a non-conference opponent in 33 games, ended that streak in a 60-55 loss to North Carolina in the third round.

Troy lost to Ole Miss, a team that has advanced to New York City, in the first round of the NIT. The Trojans had a chance to make the NCAA tournament field but lost the Sun Belt Conference tournament championship game to North Texas.

Here’s why the state is in, well, such a state: Alabama was 17-15 and finished fourth in the SEC West, though the Crimson Tide played a challenging schedule. Auburn was 15-17 and fifth in the SEC West, which led to head coach Jeff Lebo being fired. UAB is the only top-division team from the state with more than 20 wins (25-9) and the Blazers finished third in Conference USA’s standings.

Alabama State (16-15, third in SWAC), Samford (11-20, tied for fifth in Southern Conference’s North Division), Alabama A&M (11-16, sixth in the SWAC), South Alabama (17-15, fourth in Sun Belt East), Jacksonville State (11-19, seventh in OVC), Troy (20-13, first in Sun Belt East) never came close.

In one RPI ranking, UAB is the highest ranked team from the state at No. 45. Only one other — Alabama at No. 95 — is among the top 100. Alabama A&M is No. 331 out of 347 teams. It’s not a pretty picture.

Watching the Final Four should, as usual, be interesting and fun. It would be more fun and interesting for those of us here if there was a bit of local flavor, at least from the beginning. Maybe next year.